A/N: And Finally, the new stuff…. Characters created by Rumiko Takahashi. Enjoy.

Without Ranma:

Part 12

By Shikoku and Steel

Ukyo and Shampoo were worried about Akane.

"I worried about Akane." Shampoo said to Ukyo during a lull in the Nekohanten's customers. Said Tendo was in the back, washing dishes with Mousse in duck form.

"Me, too.." Ukyo admitted. "I mean, her mind is even elsewhere while we're playing.. This is bad.."

Shampoo nodded sagely. "You think we need talk to her?"

"Again?"

"What you think we should do then?" Shampoo asked. "Kill Ranma before Akane goes back to him?"

Ukyo blinked. "Uhh... I think that's a bit harsh, Sugar.."

Shampoo shrugged. "Sorry, old Amazon habit. "Obstacles are for killing"." she recited. "And all that rot."

"Well, you're not in China any more, hon." Ukyo pointed out. "Killing like that is sort of

Shampoo pouted. "Can we do something else conniving and clichéd like Passion Powder?"

"And who would we use it on?"

Shampoo thought about it for a second. "How about female Ranma.. then we can all live happy ever after."

"Bleah.." Ukyo made a face. "As cute as he is in female form, Ranma-chan is STILL a guy." She rolled her eyes. "Just ask him."

"Can turn him permanently into a girl" Shampoo then pulled out that nifty bucket thingie that was so heavily used in the Herb storyline.

Ukyo's jaw dropped. "Where the heck did you get THAT?"

"Plothole in the story." Shampoo said, "Or you can say it's our Deus ex Machina."

The okonomiyaki chef sighed, sweatdropping. "Put that thing back where you got it." she told the Amazon. "We are NOT letting Ranma join us! The whole point of this story was to EXCLUDE him, remember?"

Shampoo pouted again. "I thought the whole point of the story was to end up in one of those giant orgies where everyone gets involved in the end."

"Eeeewww! No!" Ukyo looked positively repulsed.

"What?"

"A threesome is one thing, but I'm NOT going to be in an ORGY!" The brunette seemed to be turning green. "Especially with some of the people around HERE.. Eeww.."

"Okay," Shampoo sighed. "There goes most of the readers who are only reading this story hoping it will come to that."

"Eh, screw them anyway. This wasn't actually meant to be read by anyone in the first place, it was only meant for archival purposes." Ukyo snorted. "But anyway, enough of breaking the fourth wall, back to Akane."

"Well, you shot down my ideas, I don't know what to do."

Ukyo thought for several minutes. "Well... why don't we just move? You know, take her away from Ranma? That way she'll forget about him.."

Shampoo brightened up. "I know we go back to Amazon village, land of lesbians!"

A pair of brunette eyebrows furrowed together. "But I thought you couldn't go back unless you married Ranma.."

Shampoo grinned. "If I bring back two powerful female warriors, I'd be forgiven. Warriors have a lot more worth than simple Breeders like Ranma."

"Breeders?"

"That's what Ranma was for. We just wanted his sperm, not him exactly." She could have just had him masturbate into a bottle, or something if she really had to, but what was the fun in that for her?

"Ick.. but ok then..." Ukyo paused, thinking. "I really don't have much of a home to go to, actually.. It was just me and Dad, and I haven't seen him since I left to kill Ranma.."

"Won't they miss you?"

Ukyo looked at the purple haired girl curiously. "They who?"

(Scratch that, forgot the story made no mention of a clan for Ukyo, and that it was pretty much her own idea to give up her womanhood and go after Ranma for revenge.)

"Won't HE miss you?" Shampoo corrected herself.

Ukyo shook her head. "I already wrote Dad a long time ago that I could never kill Ranma, so he's not expecting that any more. Really all he wants for me now is to be happy. I don't think he particularly cares where I'm living... and I can always visit.."

"Won't he excommunicate you from your clan for forsaking your duty and becoming a lesbian?"

"What clan?"

"Didn't think you really had one, but thought I'd ask." Shampoo shrugged.

"I already said it was just me and Dad." Ukyo pointed out.

"Just making sure "blooded Ranma Guy" got that," Shampoo said.

"Eh, we also never cared about duty at any point in this story, but still some people felt the need to point it out." Might as well cover the "Duty Guy", too, though that was a good point.

Shampoo merely rolled her eyes. "Anyway, let's go make suggestion to Akane!" She grinned happily.

So they went into the backroom and dragged Akane away from the dishes and into the alley in the back of the Nekohanten.

"Hey! What's going on?" Akane asked, surprised and still covered with suds up to her elbows.

"We need to talk" Shampoo said.

"Ok." Akane was giving them both confused looks. Usually they dragged her to the upstairs apartment. "You're not breaking up with me are you?" She asked, not like the "we need to talk' lines.

The pair blinked in unison. "What? Of course not!" Ukyo stated, surprised Akane would even think that. "Just the opposite actually."

"The opposite?"

"We wondering if you move with us to Amazon village." Shampoo looked hopeful.

Akane gaped at her. "The Amazon village? The one in China?"

"Do you know of another one?"

"But.,. but I can't leave Nerima.. I grew up here! All my family is here!"

"There some readers think that you family make you commit seppuku if you stay." Shampoo stated.

Akane gave her a "are you crazy?" look. "We're not the Saotomes. Besides, Dad gets so emotional over me just going away with friends, you really think he'd make me kill myself?" she asked with one eyebrow raised. "Of course, he'd probably react the same way if I told him I was moving..." She pondered this.

"I thought Japanese society all about honor, and putting duty before personal desires." Shampoo said, glad that the readers were giving her such good material to work with.

"Maybe in Real Life, but how often are stories based on Real Life?" Ukyo asked with a slight smirk.

"Besides the writers are American and not exactly bothering to be authentically Japanese." Akane added for good measure.

Ukyo continued. "Besides, are we really so archaic a society that we'd kill our loved ones for falling for someone out of the norm?" It was rhetoric. "I thought this was the modern age, not the feudal era."

"Eh, being gay's still frowned upon, but if Dad really made me commit seppuku, it wouldn't be for forsaking my family duty by not marrying Ranma. Remember there are two other Tendo sisters that can easily do the job instead."

"You really Nabiki or Kasumi even WANT him?" Shampoo asked incredulously.

"No, but it's their fault I got the job in the first place. Well, this time I say 'no', and I mean it."

Shampoo and Ukyo beamed. Their Akane hadn't decided to abandon them after all! Yay!

She seemed surprised when they both glomped her at once. "Huh? What was that for?" She asked, glomping back.

"You no abandon us!" Shampoo cheered, rubbing herself enthusiastically against her short haired lover.

"For Ranma, she means" Ukyo explained after Akane gave her a confused look.

"Bleah! Why would I leave you guys for THAT hentai?"

"But what were you so introspective about?" Shampoo asked.

Shampoo was making amazing strides with her pronunciations. "You mean after the whole bridge thing?" Akane asked. "I was just surprised is all. But that doesn't mean my feelings for you guys have changed any. Ranma's still just as much of a jerk now as he ever was, and that's a real put-off for me. I need to be told, up front how someone feels for me. And it didn't seem like he could do that. Sure he could blame his dad all he wanted, but that doesn't change the fact that HE personally never attempted to change. It was like he was blind to the fact that his insults were hurting me." She shook her head. "I just couldn't keep putting up with that."

Akane took a deep breath. She was going to give a speech that was the closest to a moral that this story would ever get. "It's like this: We were never the perfect model for a healthy relationship. Ranma might have loved me deep down inside, but he had a lousy way of showing it. Love is all about actions, the way he treats me should reflect his feelings. A man can spout off how much he loves you till his voice grows hoarse, but if he treats ya like crap, then all his words are lies. Those little romantic moments we did share doesn't hold up to the way we interact during day-to-day life.

And it's not all Ranma's fault, either. I never really treated him like I loved him either. Basically I never fully trusted him, and neither of us knew how to talk to each other. If there is no trust, and no capability of communication, then the relationship will never last.

To be honest, I think I was actually falling out of love with him after the failed wedding. No one knew this, but I had asked him if he really loved me. Point blank. And he denied it. He lied to my face. Just like always. I don't think he knew that I had heard him when he told me he loved me when I was dying because of Saffron, but when I asked him again and he rejected me, I really think that was the day that the part of me that really loved him, started to die. I know I've had my fair share of lies to him when it came to my feelings, but no more. The next time I see him, I breaking it off. For better or worse, it's over."

"You don't have to wait long to tell me, Akane" Ranma said, stepping out of the shadows of the back alley.

"Ranma!" All three jumped, shocked that he'd been snooping around, eavesdropping.

To Be Continued…